Bewitched by Austen

I had begun reading Jane Austen, sometime in high school. I had always felt enchanted by the plots, especially Pride and Prejudice; the characters, especially Emma and Elizabeth Jane, and the perfect Mr.Darcy..
But with time, what attracted me to Austen was her witty narrations and keen perception of the world around her. I happened to read Mansfield Park recently, both the plot and the characters arent my favorite.. But I was astounded by the solidity of Austen's observations.. and her satire and wit ofcourse.

I admire Jane Austen deeply... and salute her wit, her intellect, her sensibility and her spirit.

And I wish to add to my blog, some great quotes by this great woman..

How wonderful, how very wonderful the operations of time, and the changes of the human mind!…If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out." -Fanny Price, Mansfield Park

Nothing amuses me more than the easy manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves. - Mansfield Park

"Here's harmony!" said she; "here's repose! Here's what may leave all painting and all music behind, and what poetry only can attempt to describe! Here's what may tranquilize every care, and lift the heart to rapture! When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene." Fanny Price, Mansfield Park

It was a very proper wedding. The bride was elegantly dressed; the two bridesmaids were duly inferior; her father gave her away; her mother stood with salts in her hand, expecting to be agitated; her aunt tried to cry; and the service was impressively read by Dr. Grant. - Mansfield Park

I am worn out with civility," said he. "I have been talking incessantly all night, and with nothing to say. But with you, Fanny, there may be peace. You will not want to be talked to. Let us have the luxury of silence." Edmund Bertram, Mansfield Park

Henry Crawford had too much sense not to feel the worth of good principles in a wife, though he was too little accustomed to serious reflection to know them by their proper name. - Mansfield Park

The glory of heroism, of usefulness, of exertion, of endurance, made his own habits of selfish indulgence appear in shameful contrast; and he wished he had been a William Price, distinguishing himself and working his way to fortune and consequence with so much self-respect and happy ardour, instead of what he was! - The narrator on Henry Crawford, Mansfield Park

She had feeling, genuine feeling. It would be something to be loved by such a girl, to excite the first ardours of her young unsophisticated mind! She interested him more than he had foreseen. A fortnight was not enough. His stay became indefinite. The Narrator, Mansfield Park

"I shall always look back on our theatricals with exquisite pleasure. There was such an interest, such an animation, such a spirit diffused. Everybody felt it. We were all alive. There was employment, hope, solicitude, bustle, for every hour of the day. Always some little objection, some little doubt, some little anxiety to be got over. I never was happier."
With silent indignation Fanny repeated to herself, "Never happier!-never happier than when doing what you must know was not justifiable!-never happier than when behaving so dishonourably and unfeelingly! Oh! what a corrupted mind!" -Henry Crawford & Fanny Price, Mansfield Park

Though she had known the pains of tyranny, of ridicule, and neglect, yet almost every recurrence of either had led to something consolatory…Edmund had been her champion and her friend: he had supported her cause or explained her meaning, he had told her not to cry, or had given her some proof of affection which made her tears delightful; and the whole was now so blended together, so harmonised by distance, that every former affliction had its charm. The Narrator on Fanny Price, Mansfield Park

You will think me rhapsodising; but when I am out of doors, especially when I am sitting out of doors, I am very apt to get into this sort of wondering strain. One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy." Fanny Price, Mansfield Park

Oh! do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch. - Mansfield Park

I cannot think well of a man who sports with any woman's feelings; and there may often be a great deal more suffered than a stander-by can judge of. - Mansfield Park

(I love this one!) The intimacy bw them daily increased till at length it grew to such a pitch that they did not scruple to kick one another out of the window at the slightest provocation.. - Mansfield Park

The enthusiasm of a woman's love is even beyond the biographer's. - Mansfield Park

A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. - Mansfield Park

We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be. - Mansfield Park

Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything - Mansfield Park

Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings - Mansfield Park

From the movie adapatation of Mansfield Park

Fanny Price: [referring to Henry Crawford] I do not trust him, sir.
Sir Thomas Bertram: What do you distrust?
Fanny Price: His nature, sir. Like many charming people, he conceals an almost absolute dependence on the appreciation of others.
Sir Thomas Bertram: And what is the terrible ill in that?
Fanny Price: His sole interest is in being loved, sir, not in loving.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. - Pride and Prejudice

Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously.... Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us. - Pride and Prejudice

(An excellent quote) How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue. - Pride and Prejudice

Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life. - Pride and Prejudice

(Another quote which has both sense, truth and satire in it) For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn? - Pride and Prejudice

In every power, of which taste is the foundation, excellence is pretty fairly divided between the sexes. - Northanger Abbey

Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.- Northanger Abbey

But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way. - Northanger Abbey

Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way. - Emma

One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other. - Emma

I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. - Emma

If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. - Emma

The real evils, indeed, of Emma's situation were the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself - Emma

I shall not be a poor old maid; and it is poverty only which makes celibacy contemptible to a generous public! A single woman, with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old maid! the proper sport of boys and girls, but a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else. - Emma

Where little minds belong to rich people in authority, I think they have a knack of swelling out, till they are quite as unmanageable as great ones - Emma

Mr. Knightley, in fact, was one of the few people who could see faults in Emma Woodhouse, and the only one who ever told her of them.... - Emma

Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief. - Emma

There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do, if he chooses, and that is, his duty - Emma

The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love - Emma

Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken - Emma

(An interesting quote) I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them. - Jane Austen

To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.- Jane Austen

(Shrewd and witty) Business, you know, may bring you money, but friendship hardly ever does. - Jane Austen

Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies. - Jane Austen

(Intelligent observation) General benevolence, but not general friendship, makes a man what he ought to be. - Jane Austen

How quick come the reasons for approving what we like! - Jane Austen

Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of.- Jane Austen

What wild imaginations one forms where dear self is concerned! How sure to be mistaken! - Jane Austen

What is right to be done cannot be done too soon - Jane Austen

There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart - Jane Austen

There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves. - Jane Austen

The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. - Jane Austen

Good-humoured, unaffected girls, will not do for a man who has been used to sensible women. They are two distinct orders of being - Jane Austen

One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best. - Jane Austen

One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering - Jane Austen

(!!!) My sore throats are always worse than anyone's - Jane Austen

My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company. - Jane Austen